I woke up the next morning refreshed; our trip back to base had been uneventful. The three of us went to the command center, and sent in a holo of our report. Zotta and I went to the mess hall and then straight to bed after eating. T7 stayed behind in the command center to analyze the Stalk transmission, I turned the rakghoul transmitter over to the technicians for study, hoping maybe it could provide some sort of a lead.

Because we didn’t have a lead on Stalk, I didn’t have much planned for the day. I thought I’d spend sometime in the command center researching Stalk, and ‘the General.’ And if I found some free time I’d go see Lechelle.

Stalk and ‘the General’ graduated form the academy together; ‘the General’ quickly rose through the ranks in the chemical research and development division. Stalk managed to follow in is wake, a true lackey. Other then that there wasn’t a lot of information on the two of them, neither of them had taken part in any major conflicts. Actually they had both managed to come to Taris after the big battle between the Empire and the Republic to help with the resettlement of areas affected by the war. While looking through more records I noticed wherever they went some sort of epidemic would follow only to be miraculously cured later on. Looking back on the data, it was plain to see they’d been experimenting on those left in the wake of the war, in environments where viruses would naturally pop up. This explains why so much of ‘the General’s’ work was able to go straight into the field with minimal testing. He was testing on civilians with out the Republic knowing about it. I now knew exactly the kind of man I was dealing with, someone who would do anything or hurt anyone to get the job done.

Finding him was not going to be easy. T7 told me they still were not able to get an exact location based on the transmission of my conversation with Stalk, so I went to the Mess hall for lunch.

After chow I headed down to Alten’s shop to see if I could find Lechelle. I’d had quite an adventure since the last time I saw her, I thought maybe we could go back to the range or do something more intimate. I walked through the base; it was a cool day with a light breeze as the sun poked in and out of the clouds and the tree lines. The base was busy, new buildings going up, new recruits were arriving at the spaceport and others leaving for their next assignment. The Senate wanted to rotate out a good portion of soldiers of Taris to minimize any spies Stalk and ‘the General’ might have in our ranks. When I arrived at the shop Alten greeted me with a warm hello.

“I heard of your adventure Mr. Dimbo.”

”With the rakghouls? Oh it’s all in a days work on Taris.” I replied.

“Oh that too,” he laughed, “I was referring to the range with my daughter. She told me she had a good time and is becoming quite a shot.”

“Oh thank you sir, I’m glad she had a good time, I was hoping we could do it again sometime, perhaps now?”

“Well yes, yes of course, but first I have something for you.” He moved over to a cabinet behind the main counter. “After your recent encounter with the rakghouls, I acquired these just for you. They should be perfect for keeping the rakghouls at a better distance away from you.”

Alten reached down and pulled out a plain white box and handed it to me.

“What is it?” I asked and I set it down on the counter.

“Open it,” he replied.

I opened the box and inside were a pair of boots, similar to the ones I wore now. White military grade with a compartment for a small blaster on the right and a food and water ration in the other. These boots however had one small difference, attached to both boots were small sonic devices used to knock anyone in close radius to the wearer back.

“I’ve heard about these boots, Alten, but no one had been able to get the blast radius right, do they work?

“Of course, my good friend I tested them myself,” he replied.

“But where? How did you get them?” I questioned.

“I traded for them,” he said “An experimental engineer came into town this morning and I just couldn’t pass them up. They work, I tested them myself. The guy said he’d been trying to sell the idea to the Republic for sometime but couldn’t get approved for field test because of funding problems due to the war. I told him I knew just the soldier for the job.” While Alten spoke I looked over the boots, they seemed safe enough.

“Try them on Dimbo,” Alten said.

I took off my old boots and put the new ones on. I adjusted the size for a snug fit and walked back and worth in front of the counter.

“Let’s go out back and try them out,” Alten said. He led me out the back of his shop where he had six barrels of water set up in a circle. “Stand in the middle,” Alten said.

I walked over into the circle.

“Download this program into your wrist holo,” Alten said and handed me a datapad. I did and a command prompt showed up on my holo display. Alten took cover back in the doorway and said, “Hit it!”

I was a little nervous, I didn’t feel like spending the rest of the day soaking wet or worse spend it in the infirmary because I got knocked on my head. I braced myself for an impact I was sure was coming and pressed the command button. A pulse wave erupted from my boots knocking back all the barrels of water a good eight to twelve feet. I didn’t even get wet. The barrels exploded with water against the back of Alten’s shop.

“Wow, these things are great!” I said.

“And they run off the same power packs as your blaster rifle,” Alten said.

“Well, Alten, how much do I owe you?”

“Dimbo my friend, they are a gift.”
I shook my head, “No my friend, I cannot accept them, you have done to much for me already.”

Alten started to argue but he could see in my eyes, that I wasn’t budging. We settled on a price and I paid him. The boots would be a good upgrade to my current arsenal.

Lechelle came outside smiled at me and Alten walked back inside in shop.

“Hello Dimbo, it’s good to see you again,” she said.

“It’s good to see you also, I was hoping we could hang out today, go to the range or what not.” I thought to myself ‘please say yes.’

“Well actually I heard they opened up the cantina in the space port with a new music act. It sounded like fun, if you feel like dancing.”